In biochemistry laboratory work, gels; for example, samples of proteins produced by electrophoretic operations are held in glass or quartz tubes. To remove these gels, needles or equivalent rodlike devices have been used to attempt to ream out the gel. Even more drastic measures involve actually smashing the gel tubes in order to recover the gel itself.
Because of difficulties in removing the gels from the tubes, the length of gel in such tubes has been limited.